Page 131 of Ivory Ashes

“It’s why we went away for a few days,” he explains. “I needed to get things in order here.”

“I’m sorry…” I shake my head. “You’re giving me a gift? Like, a present?”

“Is there another kind?”

I almost bring up the Trojan Horse and ask him if this is anything like that, but I decide not to test my luck. I thought Mikhail was going to break up with me and now, he’s giving me a gift. This is a net positive, for sure. Though my anxiety hasn’t seemed to have gotten that message.

“Where is it?”

He waves for me to follow him. “In the basement.”

The basement? I’ve never been in the basement. I’m not even sure I know where the basement door is. Up until fifteen seconds ago, I would have said the mansion didn’t have a basement at all.

So I have a hard time believing going into the basement is a good thing.

Still, I follow Mikhail on leaden feet. As it turns out, the reason I’ve never seen the basement door is because it’s tucked into an alcove behind the pantry. I haven’t cooked a single meal since we’ve lived here, so beyond grabbing Dante some fruit from the bowl on the island or sneaking a bag of Cheez-Its for myself, I’ve never been back here.

Mikhail pulls out a long key and unlocks the door.

The stairwell disappears into darkness, but I can see every single one of the metaphorical red flags lining every inch of the path forward.

Three days ago, my horoscope told me the path ahead was “murky.” I applied it to my relationship with Mikhail and thought, Obviously. I mean, duh. When isn’t it? But maybe I should have taken it more literally. Maybe it was trying to warn me about this exact moment.

I freeze at the top of the stairs and Mikhail reaches back for me.

“The stairwell is narrow, but it opens into a large room,” he explains. “You won’t be claustrophobic down here.”

“I’m actually not worried about tight spaces right this second. I’m more worried about being chained up down here and left to die.” I say it as a joke, but every joke has a kernel of truth. Or, in this case, a giant heaping pile of truth with a kernel of a joke.

My heart is thundering in my throat and my breaths are coming to me in shallow gulps.

“You’d have to do something pretty bad to deserve that.” It’s annoyingly vague and potentially suggestive.

Trofim’s face flashes in my mind. Mikhail hated his brother, but if he thinks I had anything to do with Trofim’s murder, would he consider that bad enough to deserve imprisonment? Would he leave me down here?

When we reach the bottom of the stairs, Mikhail releases my hand and presses his palm to my lower back. He guides me down a narrow hall and stops in front of a metal door.

“You told me the other day that things could have been easier for you if your father had killed the men who kidnapped you.”

My eyes flick from Mikhail to the door and back again, trying to understand what’s happening. Unless there is a surprise party behind this door—which I highly doubt is happening at one in the morning—I don’t see how this is a gift for me.

“Y-yeah,” I stammer. “Yeah, I said that.”

“You needed closure. Someone hurt you and your family didn’t do anything about it. That was wrong of them.” Mikhail’s eyes glow in the darkness. He looks more serious than I’ve ever seen him. “Family should look out for family.”

He knows. Oh, God, he knows. Mikhail thinks I had something to do with Trofim’s murder and now, he is going to look out for his brother, even in death. He’s going to throw me in this room and… I can’t even think about what he’ll do.

Maybe things will be better if I confess. If I tell him right now what my father made me do… If I explain that I was pregnant and desperate and out of options, maybe he’ll take mercy on me.

“Mikhail, I don’t know what you?—”

My admission goes stagnant on my tongue as the door swings open.

The room is bare and damp. The light is muddy and I have to blink into the darkness before I see the three men leaning against the far wall. Their hands are suspended above their heads by stainless-steel chains. And I smell blood.

The metallic tang burns my nose and I stumble back into Mikhail’s chest. “What is happening? Who are they?”

Other people who have crossed Mikhail? Am I going to hang on chains next to them?

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